meet little Arthur

Hi from me, Wolfgang!

Hi from me, Wolfgang! I want you to meet one of the many patients I see every day when I admit them for surgery and make sure that they are healthy enough to have the life-changing operation on the ship.

This is little Arthur, about 6 months old, and what changes the whole appearance of this cute boy is a huge benign tumor! That means on one hand that people in his village avoid him and his family because they believe there is a curse on them or some terrible sin that the parents committed - but it also means that as this tumor grows - without help - it can suffocate Arthur to death!


But little Arthur was suitable for surgery - a long and difficult procedure. It is always amazing to see the specialists as maxillo-facial surgeons or anaesthesia providers that come from ALL over the world and are able to perform such specialized medicine in a country that is so far from being able to provide surgeries like this - in our countries we just take it for granted....


The staff is very skilled and professional, and our equipment is good (thanks to many companies that donate really good things) but often we experience that all our human "excellency" is limited - and are front-line observers of how God intervenes and does miracles! You might have heard this saying : "We do our best - and God takes care of the rest!" We are witnesses of that almost every day - and even when the anaesthesia machine stopped working, God intervened and saved Arthurs life! Or on the ward - when you have done everything humanly possible for other patients and all you can do is pray - and you see a miracle take place before your very eyes!


One of the greatest miracles is to see the patients literally transformed! Not only their outward appearance, but the change you see in their eyes, their personality!
Imagine being Arthurs mother, living in a country that is in a terrible post-war condition, being too poor to even consider medical counsel - and even if there would be help, never being able to afford it. Imagine you are the mother of a child that is considered cursed, and being abandoned by your family and neighbours for you must have sinned or attracted a curse on you!
Imagine being this poor mother fearing for your son´s life, fearing to see him getting slowly suffocated to death!


And then... being the mother of little Arthur, looking completely different, being free of fear of suffocation, and having experienced God´s love for all people not regarding their status put into action in their lives!
We pray for our patients that this God will not be some distant God for them, but that they will be able to leave the ship and KNOW that this God wants to be their loving heavently father, caring for them not only for their physical needs, but also meet their inward need for reconciliation with him.
And that is our prayer for each and everyone of you! Blessings!
Andrea and Wolfgang with David and Amy

"David´s Gbarnga Story" - or: David and "the car"!

Hello, this is your friend David who wants to tell you more about our trip to Gbarnga just recently!

Do you want to know what I want to become when I am big?
I always thought I want to be a doctor like my daddy, but I am not so sure anymore... the ship just had a long weekend for (almost) all crew and there was a group that I and Amy and Mommy joined to spend some days in the house of our friends in Gbarnga (who are in Switzerland at the moment) - but doctors don´t seem to get long weekends very much, so daddy could not come. We were a great group, and we missed him!


I might think of becoming a mechanic for cars now - for this weekend taught me alot about cars - and about how many things can actually go wrong in a car. Our rented car looked quite decent from the outside - but it really turned our trip into an adventure, and I let you be part of it!

Don´t freak out - this is NOT our car! But it is the car another group of Mercyships had rented for a long-weekend trip, and unfortunately got involved in an accident on the way. We passed them and stopped, spend time with them for they had to wait for ages till something happened, and prayed together. Just two weeks ago we learned a verse from the bible in kindergarten that Mommy mentioned when we prayed with our friends who had the accident:
"For we know that all things (even the bad things that unfortunately do happen) work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose." (Romans 8, 28). No one was seriously injured, but even though it was not their fault, they still got blamed for the accident. So where is God´s justice? I don´t understand it all, but Mommy told me that the group experienced miracles in this - random people suddenly donating money to two of the group and the money added to the EXACT amount that they had to pay. Or good conversations with policemen that were touched by the way and the love the mercyships people dealt with it all. And everyone in the group said they learned so much through all of this. Mommy says that some things we will only understand in the future - but we always have to put our hope and trust in God who wants to use all situations in our life for our best - if we let him do it!

So... what about us?

Shortly after where the accident took place we had a flat tire! Our guys said "no problem" and wanted to change the wheel with our spare wheel in the back.I wanted to watch, for I want to learn how you do that! But.... first problem: the tools needed for that were missing! We stopped 4 cars until we finally had someone there who could help us out. Then the second problem: The spare wheel was a wrong one - not one for our car! It didn´t fit - even I could see that! So what now? Israel from our group took the wheel - jumped into a passing car that took him to the next village - it was about 9 pm, would he find ANYONE that could help him and fix the hole? We were left behind in the pitch dark, no lights on our road, and the cars that came every now and then drove in a crazy speed.


We didn´t know how long we would have to wait - so we tried to save power and turned the emergency lights on only when we heard a car approaching. One time we were almost too late and the car missed only by inches! Even though I was already tired, that really woke me up again!
In the beginning I was scared - it was a scary situation: No light around us, strange noises from the bush around us, no idea how long we will have to stay there. But everyone else started to sing worship songs and we prayed together - and suddenly all my fear was gone! I think Jesus just took it away, for the situation had not changed a bit!
So we waited ... and created a nice decoration on the street close to the car - 7 different ones! Smile.... (no one was too eager to go into the bush for that....)

A few hours later Israel came back - sitting on a motorbike with a driver that didn´t seem to know how to slow down - holding on to dear life , and a repaired wheel!
So some time after midnight we reached our destination, our supposedly 4 hour trip had turned into 9 hours, but at least we were there! As we drove the last meters uphill to the house the car started to smoke - we all needed rest!

The next morning we enjoyed it so much to be here in Gbarnga - the nice big house...


.... the beautiful green nature (here you can see two people harvesting rice - I was surprised that rice looks like that! For me it is the white kernels we get to eat almost every day on the ship!)...


...and a walk to a giant tree that unfortunately was not giant anymore - they had just cut it down (anywhere else in the world this tree would have been protected) but you can still see from the remainings what a big tree it must have been! For me it was a great climbing opportunity - but I am sad the tree is gone!


In the afternoon the went to the market to buy some bread and fruit. I enjoyed it! Here a picture for you of one of the stands so you get an idea....


Our car seemed to work again, so we drove to a nearby river and I pretended to fish for our dinner together with my Gbarnga-friend George.....


.... but only until George discovered a watersnake right next to us! We had Spaghetti for Dinner - fish another time!



The next day we dared to challenge our car and drive the one-and-a-half hour distance to a waterfall - one of the touristic highlights of Liberia (if there would be any tourists! Smile)
We took a wrong turn and ended on a really bad road - and our car started to produce smoke... and then hot boiling cooling liquid splashed around our heads and burned Israels arm a little bit. The overheating motor happened to us twice again on our way back to Monrovia, so I know now where the motor and the cooling liquid is! Do you want me to show you?


The "right road" was alot better than the one we accidently took, still bumpy at times, but...


...we managed to get to the waterfalls, and it was beautiful!



We had a great time there, playing around and having a nice little personal Sunday service with our star guitarist Anne-Josien playing worship songs and Israel speaking about Psalm 23 - what a great place to worship God! I think I always want it like that now!


I took a bath in the river aswell (Daddy was not too excited when he heard about it) but enjoyed the nice bath tub in "our" house even more - for we don´t have a bath tub on the ship!
I am sure this will be one of the silly pictures my Mom will safe to show at my wedding... oh no!


I mentioned my friend George already, didn´t I?



He gave me a very special gift - his very own catapult! (I only had a ball as an exchange gift, but he liked it too!)
Mommy says I am too young to use it, for it can be a true weapon - but I am very proud to have it and feel like my hero David in the bible who killed the lion and Goliath with such a thing!
I promise I will never aim on people - but IF a lion shows up, I will protect my family! :-)


The following day we had to drive back to Monrovia - and we left early, just to make sure we have enough time in case our car gives us more trouble....
... and that was a wise decision!
We had to stop a few times because of our overheating motor... but about one-and-a-half hours away from our ship there was this sound that didn´t sound good at all - the gear box broke! So what now? We were experts in waiting - and luckily a friend from the ship eventually was able to come with a Mercy Ships Landrover an tow us back home!


We are very thankful to God for protecting us on the way, bringing us home safely - and for a great weekend! Also "thank you so much" to Family Elser who allowed us to stay in their house even they were gone - (but I missed my friends Salome, Rebekkah and Joshua!)



So much from me, David! Thank you for your interest! It was fun sharing this adventure with you!

Update in pictures

Sorry-o (in Liberian English) for neglecting this poor blog so much..... sometimes the mountain seems too big to start.... Anyway: I decided that I will not wait anymore for the "enough amount of time" to write these perfect articles for that never seem to come - but rather put something on the blog regularly like once every week or two weeks to keep those of you informed with pictures and little (imperfect :-)) stories who are interested and had to wait too long.... again, sorry-o!


The quickest way to update you that I can think of is WITH PICTURES - so enjoy some impressions of the last few month (it is a shock to realize it has really been that long....) - and there is more to come! I promise!!! More detailed information in our newsletter (on request).

I (Andrea) and the kids got the chance to go home to Munich this summer - a big blessing!
Here you see us with my parents and one of my brothers

What was one of the things we will not have in Africa? Strawberries - all you can eat here!


David and Amy enjoying icecream and a great time at our dear friends in Hockenheim



Dear God, thank you soooo much for your provision and the great time in Germany! Thanks sooo much to ALL of you who blessed us in so many ways during our stay there!


Middle of August we came back to the ship, reunited as family ( poor Wolfgang couldn´t come to Germany with us for he had to stay and work) and you can see that we all were very happy about that! And our family increased - yessss, we have a baby.......


.... and her name is Lilli! David and Amy are great parents - well, some of the time at least!


Here you can see them practising "adult life" by baking a great cake with our dear friend Esther for a special occasion...


for no one gets younger! This is on my 34th birthday - I celebrated it this time on the ship and not on our flight to our new season in life leaving Germany with many questions.... I am very grateful to look back on the last year, and I can truly say I see God that God has been with us during this last intense year of my life!

For another occasion I myself baked a cake:


The teenage of our teeny group at the orphanage "God´s childrens home" came to visit us on the ship! They all wore their nicest outfit - jeans and t-shirt, and were soooo excited!



They enjoyed our kids toys on deck 7 .... and a movie for the first time in their lives: we watched part of a movie on the gospel of John (what we are reading together at the moment).

Since the orphanage moved, we have to drive out 45 minutes to get to the new place - on roads that cannot really be called roads! Here we got stuck in a mud hole - and it took us 3 girls 30 minutes and lots of prayer to get out again!


Do you want to know what is happening now?


David and Amy are shouting: "Daddy needs VACATION!!!!!!"
After a very intense year of work without a break Wolfgang was more than ready to have a break now...


..... so we had the opportunity to go to Ghana for 10 days, one of the more developed countries in Liberias neighbourhood.

For a few days we stayed at Youth with a Mission Ghana...



and for 6 days at a beautiful little Pension at the beach!


Ghana is in many respects "nicer" than Liberia even though it is still a developing West African country.... only the ships seem so much smaller than ours! Smile....


Back to Liberia....
..... another "car story":


Just this last weekend ago a group of us (including David and Amy and myself) went to Gbarnga, usually about 4 hours drive from Monrovia. We rented a car that wasn´t as good as it looked from the outside - we had everything from flat tire (the spare tire was one that was not fitting), boiling motor, etc..... up to a complete breakdown on our way back so that we had to be towed back to the ship! Quite adventuresome - and David learned more about (not-so-good) cars!
Anyway, the weekend in Gbarnga was really worth everything (thanks, family Elser and Simon!)


David and his friend George from Gbarnga - and his new toy that actually is a weapon: George gave him his catapult as a special gift, and David gave him his favourite ball! (Oh boy, the ball was for sure less dangerous...)


Also Amy liked George alot (is the man of her dreams now African...?)
Or more like Juan from the Dominican Rebublic...?


To end this entry I show you this picture from some roads we took near Gbarnga - and promise to continue to take you on a trip through our experiences here in Africa! (As long as you don´t expect it to be "perfect"!
"See" you later!